Mundo Marino Trip Summary – 9th to
15th January
Helio and I
travelled from France and England to make the long travel to Argentina to visit
Kshamenk at Mundo Marino. After learning about the captive orca industry 22.5
years ago, it was always my wish to visit every orca park in the world but I
never knew whether I would make it to see Kshamenk or not. And so it is very
surreal that Helio and I finally made this trip happen, after months of talking
and planning it! We arrived into Buenos Aires late on Tuesday 7th
January and then took the 4 hour bus the following day to San Clemente del
Tuyu.
From
Thursday 9th January to Wednesday 15th January we visited
Mundo Marino every day. Over those 7 days we saw Kshamenk in 22 shows, at 11am,
12pm, 3pm and 6:20pm. We also had the opportunity to view Kshamenk twice a day
at the underwater viewing glass at 2pm and 4:30pm. So we developed a daily
routine of seeing Kshamenk a possible 6 times a day, depending on how many
shows were scheduled per day.
When we
arrived to the park and waited for the 11am show to begin, Kshamenk would
either be in the back left pool or in the show pool with Floppy the bottlenose
dolphin. When in the back pool, Kshamenk would either float at the surface (I
believe to watch for when the trainers would come out), or he would hang
underwater. If Kshamenk was in the show pool, he would do a variety of
behaviours, such as lapping, side swimming with his pec in the air, upside down
swimming, or floating by the left or right gate to the back pools.
For the
shows, Kshamenk would usually only be used for a maximum of 10 minutes and then
he would be moved to the left back pool and then the 4 bottlenose dolphins
(Clembo, Orion, Tifon and Shima) would perform in the rest of the show. For the
11am show he would be used in the first half of the show, and for the 12pm show
he would be used in the second half. For the 3pm show he was used in the first
half, and for the 6:20pm show it would vary whether he was used in the first or
second half of the show. The shows also varied in the amount of times Kshamenk
would be asked to breach or go on the slide out. Some other behaviours in the
show that he might do included “singing”, pec waving, fluke waving and
splashing the crowd. The trainers told us that Kshamenk was used for only half
of the show as he is getting older.
We
established a good friendship with Kshamenk’s trainers and so we got a few more
extra viewing privileges than the public would. In one session we got to
witness Kshamenk be presented with a variety of letters “Co, E, V, L” and he
could choose what his enrichment session would be. We saw Kshamenk chose “V”
which meant a rubdown session. We watched Lucas use a broom to scrub down
Kshamenk. On other occasions we would just sit in the stadium and chat with the
trainers, and Kshamenk would often be floating nearby. I think Kshamenk liked
to see/be near us for the company. I didn’t observe Kshamenk and Floppy
interact too often, apart from a few synchronized breaths and on one occasion
Kshamenk and Floppy were in the back pool during the dolphin part of the show
and Kshamenk was swimming with his penis out. However, the trainers told us
that Kshamenk and Floppy had a close relationship.
When it
came to the underwater sessions, Kshamenk would be moved from the show pool
twice a day to go to the underwater pool that the other bottlenose dolphins
normally occupy (Clementine, Nemo, Rebo, Donda). His time in the bigger pool
would not be long maybe maximum 10 minutes, as the guests had their photograph
taken with him that they paid for. Kshamenk would always pose at the glass with
is mouth open, which is something that he chose to do and cannot pose in
another way. It was very mesmerizing to see him at the underwater glass – to be
able to see his full length, and particularly to be able to look into his eye. On
one occasion I could hear Kshamenk vocalizing underwater. Very special. It was
a shame to know that Kshamenk’s time in the underwater pool was short as it’s
so much more spacious for him. However the trainers said that in winter he gets
to spend more time in that pool, and they enjoy being able to see him swim
fast. But one time at the glass without any guests around, Kshamenk did bang
his rostrum quite hard on the glass. It made such a loud noise! Poor baby.
Overall I would say that Kshamenk was in very good condition. His teeth were great - nearly all of them there and intact, though maybe one or two missing. In the show it was explained that because of his age Kshamenk was fed fish that had been processed/ground down. The trainers would make the ground up fish into balls to feed Kshamenk. Though I did see Kshamenk eat a few whole fish. Other physical features that looked good were his nice beautiful flukes, and overall his size and weight looked good too (as the last few years he had lost weight). He was just one big beautiful whale, really. The obvious sad things are that his main pool is too small and that he doesn’t have any other orca companionship. But overall I think he is doing well. The trainers love him a lot and say that he is a nice, kind and gentle whale and doesn’t have “bad days” often. They will always respect him, and they said if he doesn’t want to do anything then they just have to cancel the show and be honest to the public about it. So I think he is a well looked after whale. I am so pleased that I finally got to meet him.
